STROGER WON'T BLOCK MOVE TO DECRIMINALIZE POSSESSION OF POT

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger said Thursday he won't stand
in the way of legislation to decriminalize possession of small
amounts of marijuana.

This week, the County Board approved a measure allowing sheriff's
police to issue a $200 ticket for possessing 10 grams or less of
marijuana in unincorporated parts of the county.

The ordinance took Stroger, the sheriff and others by surprise, and
the board president said he was mulling a veto.

But Thursday, he told the Chicago Sun-Times he's OK with the
legislation, calling it just another option for sheriff's police, who
will have the discretion to arrest someone on misdemeanor charges --
particularly a repeat offender.

"I'm fine with it. It's just another tool a law enforcement [officer]
can use," Stroger said.

"It's also like anything else, [officers] can also check and see the
background of a person, and if they've been fined twice, they can
say, 'OK you're going in.' It doesn't take their ability away from
doing that," he said.

Stroger questioned the prudence of constantly sending people to jail
for such offenses.

Under current state law, someone carrying more than 2.5 grams and up
to 10 grams of marijuana could be arrested on a Class B misdemeanor,
which carries a penalty of up to 6 months in jail. Someone carrying
2.5 grams or less could be convicted of a Class C misdemeanor, which
carries a penalty of up to 30 days in jail.

But under the new county ordinance, which takes effect in two months,
the person could be slapped with a ticket and walk away without a
criminal conviction.

The idea was the brain child of Commissioner Earlean Collins, who
said it gives kids who make a mistake -- as her grandson once did --
a second chance without spending the night in jail or getting a rap sheet.

The ordinance was passed quietly Tuesday, when the board made big
news by reducing the highly controversial sales tax increase pushed
through a year ago.

Sheriff's officers made 173 arrests on misdemeanor charges last year
and, to date, about 150 this year -- but a small percentage of those
were made in unincorporated parts of the county, said spokesman Steve
Patterson. The sheriff's office didn't immediately have a breakdown
of those statistics.

Five years ago, Mayor Daley embraced a similar measure for Chicago
that went nowhere, but this week, the mayor ridiculed the county's
pot ordinance, saying: "People say you cannot smoke. ... They said,
'Please don't smoke.' Now, everybody's saying, 'Let's all smoke
marijuana.' After a while, you wonder where America is going."

Asked about the mayor's criticism, Stroger dismissed it, saying:
"He's one citizen."

Asked whether he has smoked pot, Stroger said: "No, not my kind of thing."